Kunayev was born on 14 July 1929, in
Alma-ata,
Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic, today known as Almaty, Kazakhstan. He graduated from the
National University of Science and Technology (MISiS) in 1951. He was the brother of
Dinmukhamed Kunaev and married to
Mukhtar Auezov's daughter Leila. He was a full member of the
USSR Academy of Sciences and President of the
Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR from 1974 to 1986. He died on 31 March 1999, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. ==References==